If you're one of those humans who likes what some call 'music', I think you owe it to yourself to check out (or re-check out) Judas Priest's 2024 album, Invincible Shield. I did an article around the time of its original release, and I have to say - not only has it held up incredibly well, it's going to age beautifully.

There are so many winners. So many, it's practically unfair. And at their age? That's far more impressive. They've reinvented the sound again, a feat that wasn't even necessary, and boy the melodies are a grand thing to behold. The album's mix itself is light years ahead of Redeemer of Souls, and it's even tighter than Firepower's.

In my view, there are four songs you must hear:

- Serpent and the King
- Invincible Shield
- Crown of Horns
- Trial By Fire

and if you like those, you owe yourself the following additional homework:

- Panic Attack
- Devil in Disguise
- Gates of Hell
- The Lodger

Some have described Invincible Shield as a sort of spiritual successor to Painkiller, but I'd take it a step further. I think it's better. Not least for the fact they created this monster so late in their career.

There are a couple of quickies (Sons of Thunder, Vicious Circle), excellent adjacent world/geopolitical commentary (Panic Attack), along with some of their classic religious-themed stuff in 'Crown', 'Serpent', 'Gates' and 'Devil'. Meanwhile, 'Serpent' and 'Shield' are almost two halves of one song due to how quickly one transitions to the other, but this isn't bad - it's actually kind of fascinating how similar yet different they are. Almost like an anthology.

I also really need to mention that Trial By Fire should get a nomination for best fade-in of 2024. It's absolutely dripping with atmosphere, with a peak Judas Priest chorus that refuses to get out of your head. And if you want to talk about earworms, my god do you need to hear Crown of Horns. It has that church-like anthem to it, the kind which pulls at your strings whether you like it or not.

Lastly on specific songs, there's a great key change waiting in Escape From Reality, a chilling and sublime breakdown in 'Giants', and a theatrical performance in The Lodger that I'll never forget. The amount of keystone moments on this record is ridiculous.

I also need to mention how badass the guitar work is here. The back-and-forth soloing that is typical of Priest seems somehow stronger than usual. The lyrics have grown a lot too, and I imagine that has a lot to do with Halford himself as there seems to be more of him in the words this time around.

To close out the recollection, I thought Priest was hanging up for good when I heard Redeemer. The mix was muddy and boomy, the pacing was eerily decrepit, and there was more than one hint lyrically that things were about to wrap up. Then out of nowhere, Firepower came along and blew that perception away. I didn't love that album though - it seemed a bit generic and serviceable aside from the title track, and maybe Lightning Strike or Necromancer.

I don't feel that way with their 2024 release at all. Invincible Shield locks it in tight, and makes you wonder how you ever went without it.

While examining the cause of a bug, I found a single string. A string that decoded as:

ÞÅø¬╬♪

At first, I assumed what any modder would.

But after reading it aloud several times, I couldn't shake the feeling it was a name.

I began referring to the entity as Paolt J.

What struck me most about Paolt J. was that he, she, or perhaps it, is not referenced anywhere else in the program. No pointers led to their string. Not least the bytes themselves - they occupied (and still occupy) a space that shouldn't be there.

It didn't end there. I located another twin string. A twing, if you will - Hª‚ªÁªÛªÿª.

Of course, it wanted to be found - that was it. But I didn't need to transcribe this half of the message. That folly would be simply.

Is that what you would have bookshelf, tendon seashell?

Isthmus candid brothel forgery icon?

I have an important announcement.

You ever wonder what goes through those scam artists' minds when culture unites around how dumb their slogans are? How inconsiderate of us!

"Oh shit, they've figured it out?! What does this mean? What about our future?!"

"No big. We're already lining up replacement hooks. Just ask AI if you're stumped. That's what I do."

"B-but what happens if they ALL stop clicking our ads...?"

"Look at how many people still complain about YouTube ads they could've blocked in ten seconds. They won't."

Considering how dumb of a kid I was I never expected to do really any of this stuff. It honestly still feels like phantom limb syndrome now and then.

"No, what? I couldn't have coded/written/drawn/composed that."

The memory never really leaves. Like okay, for how much I formulate ideas around names, that was SO not how it began here. I had too self aware a feeling that my "creativity" had no game whatsoever...almost like I remembered having more in the past. And boy did it piss me off.

You ever encounter people who use that canned, "it's your experience and I won't argue with it"? It's kinda like a direct translation from, "I don't believe one god damn thing you just said and never will, but that's nice for you." I wonder how empty a soul has to be before it starts to say such things to another whom it does not know. I don't want to find out.

Someone less stubborn would have given up on what I used to be and still am. After all, each life should be a reset, no matter how it's given. The effect should be the same, aye? Well it isn't, and I'm not alone. There is a difference between going out on your own terms, and ...not. And yet it is in part through my backward-recovered realizations that I have scraped back up the ability to do any of those aftermentioned things at all!

I always was backwards for here. An anomalous animal in cage: "What's it doing? Why's it doing it?" shudders "What'll it do next?!"

Frankly, I do not believe for a moment it'll truly take five grand more orbits to unravel this place. Though it will carry some side effects, and you can see that even on the ground. New innovations spring up, and the "record companies" scramble to exact their preventative mindsets in a classic battle. Again, and again. Imagine the pressure everyone will feel when it gets closer to time, across the whole globe!

The new Songs of Conquest faction drops next week. Can't. friggin. wait.

I said it was coming, and here it be. First update to the project in five months.

A few bugs are fixed here, and in case someone just can't get enough I threw in another mode unlock which was based on something I created last September. It, uh.. makes all foes regenerate. Yes, even bosses.

Anyway, for how obscure these bugs were, this is a nice little victory lap!

I would say I've been doing this whole "modding thing" for eleven years now, but that's not entirely accurate. It's always been a calling, no matter what form it took. Whether it was making maps in Starcraft Broodwar, Heroes of Might and Magic or Warcraft III - be it tower defense, aeon of strife or huge RPGs that merged games with other games. And I know it's a calling for my being because I never tire of the work. It is detail-oriented, dynamic, imaginative and very challenging.

And no one is telling me what to do.

Creatively, I kinda always wanted to be a Swiss Army knife. There have been a few rare exceptions, like with the credit I give repeatedly to my ASM mentor & friend on the FF1 project. Her help made me realize the logical side isn't always a brick wall of scary-as-hell. It can be fun. It works that part of my mind in a much-needed way, and has affected me in many demonstrable ways.

More tangibly, she made me finally feel brave enough to try HTML after shying away for nearly two decades, and is the sole reason I coded this website. On the occasion I make something that impresses her, it is a kind of fulfillment I simply never felt elsewhere. It reinforces a core purpose which defies easy explanation. She is in part, bare minimum, responsible for all progress I made beginning with MFF1's 2.0 release back in 2020, and even more enormously in the 3.0 era.

There is simply nothing like having the right people.

Naturally, I had worries when I began concepts for this new project back in October. Would it just be a rehash? Would it be worth the scale of plans I was drawing up? But I know it now. There have been a few moments where I get emotional watching the systems come together, and in ways they never have on any other project. Knowing not only that there is further to climb, but that the climbing is actively happening, is truly life-giving.

By the way, I'm gonna do a tiny bugfix update for MFF1 soon, so if you've managed to find any, this would be the time to let me know! You can do so by visiting the docs or clicking my head for the necessary info.

Used the Magnifier program for the first time today, mainly because this map editor renders at THE smallest possible size. Then it gave me motion sickness. Yet another reminder I need a new prescription..

Hi.

I know that a few of you have been curious and/or hopeful ever since I announced the dawn of a new major project. For six months, I recognize I haven't done so much as even the whole, tell you something without telling you much. And while I'm far enough in now that I'm pretty sure the world can't curse my efforts damningly enough to shatter things, I generally still favor the slow drip, and foreseeably always will. I prefer to wait until it feels "good", not "hype".

That said...

I WILL give you some superficial insight which you may well like regardless, and that's partly in owe to the tremendous successes so far. If you are aware of my works, you will recognize the base product right away. What you won't expect however, is what I am doing with it. To begin, the vision is simply too big not to be its own creation. There are pages of completely new elements which have not been attempted before. Perhaps most exciting for me are the ones I've never had the chance to work with on any other project: story, world, and characters.

I will leave you with this - 7 is a sort of dream merging of two things I have long loved, one of which is sorely lacking among my works.

The party in power is openly - not conspiratorily, openly - obsessed with barring all future elections after their president previously claimed multiple elections were rigged against him.

Riveting.

The President and his administration are trying very hard to limit as many peoples' ability to vote as possible, particularly groups believed to be more likely to vote against them come November. This makes it even more important we be ready for the midterms. Let me be clear - more extreme things will happen before then. The closer we get, the more bad shit he will say and do.

But whatever happens, do not give up. Talk to family members and friends who are on the fence. Show them his hatred and his selfishness. Show them we have a loose cannon for a commander in chief. Remind them we cannot abandon ship simply because it feels better to look away, and do not give in to nihilism. Our allies are abandoning us for a reason - that doesn't make us look tough. It makes us look foolish. And yet they are also increasingly standing with American citizens over our own government. That matters big.

Reject the fabricated immigration woes, and educate those who still beat that hollow drum. Our President is on camera marveling about his highlight reel of explosions in Iran. He's on camera fawning novelly over the concept of missile strikes as if it were all a fiction, each capable of murdering dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people. People like you reading this, and people like me writing it.

Anything this man destroys, we can rebuild. Personally, I'd say give us Ossoff for 2028, and don't let the next resident Allen Dulles pull a Dealey Plaza on him this time.

December, 2013. I'd been in with pretty serious writer's block for a month or two. I forced myself to continue, experimenting even at cost to my hearing. One of the things I came up with by October 2014 was an ensemble of NES and SNES sounds, which I intended for a new medley album. As well the idea was to add original composition akin to OCRemix, and go for a sound that, perhaps paradoxically, mimicked an actual band.

At the time, this sort of thing was still underground by comparison, and mixes always were my greatest hurdle. Fast forward to today, I realized not just how badly this album needs a facelift, but that I could give it one.

Classica II features nine medley tracks spanning Age of Empires, Warcraft, Advance Wars, Mega Man, Star Fox and even Pikmin. Click on the (small version of!) the artwork below, or head over to my channel in the sidebar like always to check it out.

Welcome to my latest collection of badass adjustments, this time for a game that wasn't talked about nearly enough in its prime. Those who knew of Torchlight II often viewed it as the scrappy underdog in an era dominated by Path of Exile and Diablo III. This reputation is well-earned - and it can still captivate you today.

That said, there were some mindblowing design choices along the way. How about rare coins that give the player 1% extra gold - that'll get their dopamine receptors firing...or how about multiple passives for the Outlander that don't even proc with HALF HER ACTIVE SKILLS?!

Yeah. This mod takes that shit out back behind the bowling alley.

The goal was to keep things fair, blow open new pathways and builds, and as always, repurpose useless junk no one cared about back then (or now) and make it awesome. That means a ton of skill and skill tier improvements - including my decade-old personal dream of a Shock Copter that deals good lightning damage from the outset! ^.^

But there are some other changes which you may feel more subconsciously, like a less annoying camera shake during critical strikes, better use of certain weapon animations, and more level spawning rates for certain Enchanters ... who no longer charge for disenchanting. Heheh.

Last but not least, my god did this game ship with text & skill bugs. Countless tooltips did a worse-than-poor job selling their skills to the player. I've taken a look at this side of the game too, and highlighted previously hidden parameters that gamers typically consider obvious, valuable intel.

No matter how you slice it, this is an upgrade for Torchlight II.

Oh, and a few new items. It's an item game, ain't it?

I don't know if any of you are still around from when I first mentioned making a massive post about the Earth prison, but if you are, you're probably aware that I still haven't made it. I might finally do it this year. Seems like a good time, dunnit? I think so.

It saddens me a bit too. In touching on all the other things I've wanted to mention lately, I have been neglecting one of the sacred main purposes of this blog - to illuminate things regarding Earth and the universe which the average human knows fuck all about, and be a smartass for a calculably tolerable ten to fifteen percent of it.

Until then, here's one I like from 2010:

Where is it? Mars.
What is it? We all know exactly what it fucking is.
How? Refer to the name humans gave that world.

But there's another question NPCs won't ask: what about its inhabitants?

The answer: Mostly absorbed into Earth's slave population. But a few otherwise survived and escaped, or were taken to be enslaved elsewhere. Sorry if this is your first time realizing, but that is in fact how parts (not all!) of the universe are.

If you bought the idea that you are "here to experience life" then I have a message for you to take back to Jupiter. Ask for knowledge next time.

Fascism requires a popular war in order to consolidate its power. It also requires that its people die in that war. In this case, the strikes were not even authorized. Perhaps worse, they were done in standing with Israel. If someone's god is truly "on the side of Israel" then their theology excuses and supports limitless murder. Including children by the way - a lot of them.

There will be no wrangling out of this no matter how hard anyone tries. No amount of shouting against basic facts (see: argument by repetition) will make it right.

Our president is a bully's bully. Never before have U.S. citizens cheered a president's brutality the way many do with this man. And like any villain's sidekick, ... do I really have to keep spelling the obvious? Actually, no. Instead, I'm going to say a teeny bit of the quiet part out loud, because that's more fun, and this girl hasn't dropped any larger-than-Earth hints in 2026 that I recall.

"God" is a corruption.
"One all-powerful being" is a corruption.

The undeniable universal truth is and will always be -
We are all one, and we are all-powerful.

This distortion was introduced thousands of years ago, but I'm willing to bet those cheering for POTUS and Israel right now don't know that. As one of the newest victims of this prison planet, I find it very amusing that I figured it out before them. Years ago. That corruption was designed to spawn never-ending confusion, elicit irrational emotion, and empower the ego. The cognitive dissonance wielded by those in denial is one of the symptoms.

Spirit above all.

Got a bit of a weird one for you today. You know about the "Mandela" effect and CERN, right? What I bet you DIDN'T know is there are unexplained changes relating to games as well!

I first discovered this while I was working on Waluigi RPG. There's a lava-filled room in the opening variant of Bowser's Keep which now has two paratroopas at far opposite corners. They weren't there in 1996. They even have their own unique, exclusive AI - programmed and set. They fly toward you at an eerie pace, and the best part is they're too high in the air to even reach you, which makes no sense. For how strained the VRAM is in that game, everything shown on screen NEEDED to be worth its weight.

"Cyan, you simply ran past them as a kid WiThOuT nOtIciNg. ILLUMINATIDECONFIRMED!111|"

Sorry I'm back. Had to take out the trash.

Anyway, I was the 'stare in wonder' type of kid, wanting to know every last detail. Those two koopas would have stood no chance against me. They are even absent from old let's play footage from earlier Youtube days! By the time you reach the other end of the bridge, they're guaranteed to be in plain sight no matter how fast you run - the room ain't THAT big. Last but not least, the room isn't even tiled with the correct layer priority to accomodate flying sprites! I had to redo the graphics of the entire lava bed just to get the koopas to stop glitching out.

So yeah. If you run into them (or see what I did with them in my mod!) you'll know a little extra something.

But wait, you called with your credit card ready! This post actually originated with me wanting to talk about an anomaly from a different game, Torchlight II. This time, the difference is far easier to spot. Items in Torchlight II often give your character bonuses, and I've always remembered the awkward and hilarious way the devs chose to write it out on the tooltip. They used the word "confer", instead of grant, add, or even just a simple plus sign. I remember having to look this word up back then, because my dumb ass didn't know it.

But what if I told you (lol) that if you load up the game today, the word isn't confer at all? No, you idiotfool - it's convey.

1. CONFER To grant as a possession; to bestow (transitive)
"Therefore it does not confer any economic advantage"

2. CONVEY (of information) Make known; pass on
"She conveyed the message to me"

For anyone who isn't an INTJ or English teacher, or both, the difference between these two words might be slimmer in today's world of increasingly soupy, homogenized context. But let's just say it's a step beyond farther versus further. I guess in that (this?) timeline, whoever wrote "convey" mixed them up.

Frankly, this is totally on brand for Torchlight II - the game is loaded with minor inaccuracies. They should have just gone with a simpler word - one they actually fucking knew. My shotgonne doesn't "explain" me a chance to call forth a meteor from the sky; it GRANTS me that chance.

Oh, and that little project #6 is Torchlight II, bitches.
Consider this the official announcement. Soon™

There are now two new projects in the works. I expect one of them will be about the size of my Heroes III mod, or smaller.

The second will be huge.

This is just one platform which has joined the war declaration against all who made them into what they are today - us. Shit emoticons, shit volume controls, shit message lengths, shit avatar resolutions, shit status updates, shit status update prompts, shit subscription ads, shit privacy policy, shit AI policy, shit MMO-style slave tasks. HOLY SHIT.

You are powerful. Make them pay. Betray corps who betray you.

Today we live in a world where many have forgotten, and no longer care for the value of goings on around them. Some in several capacities, some in all. I would encourage you, and for you to encourage those you know, to remember - it doesn't have to be like that.

When I do my digging - my research - to find out more about the often horrific things happening on Earth right now, when I press for more angles and learn far worse as the facts present themselves, I do not do it out of a twisted sense of masochism or punishment. Today I'm going to explain why everyone should pay attention, no matter who you are, where you live, or what your life situation looks like.

When you do dishes or feed your child, you do not merely do these things for their immediate tangible value. You do them for something else as well. There is an inherent, binding ritual at work. One that communicates something to those affected by what you are doing. One that says, "If no one does it, no one will." It must be done because it is depended on, even by those who do not appreciate or understand yet.

It makes you a rock. It makes you sturdy. Because these decisions carry immense energy.

That is why I pay attention. I do not pay attention to saturate myself with negativity. I do not flock to the details only in order to cry over the loss of someone who was wrongfully taken from us. I do it, because it enables me to center my values against what is taking place. I do it also because my values will erode if I do not. Because of this, I am able to still say, "I know this is wrong." It enables me to better reflect on my own station. It enables me to see more readily how easily things could be better when all of us are just a little better.

Not perfect, not ideal. Just a little.

The public execution of Alex Pretti is another, even more deliberate exercise in the dismantling of the West's, and indeed the world's most foundational integrities - basic facts. Everyone who watched as they tried to rename the Gulf of Mexico knew this wasn't far away. 2024 truly was the last normal year.

This administration, via one department or another, is now openly killing U.S. citizens, and continuing - continuing - to lie about the citizens they're murdering. The reason for this is that fascism, as an ideology and as a form of government, cannot stand still. It must either expand or be brought down. Fascism is a declaration of war against all, not just one group - the propaganda around an 'other' is a dynamic illusion. The National Socialist German Workers' Party too promised a miracle to all tiers of society. In the end, only the rich benefited.

Do not let this regime numb you to facts, to humanity, to empathy.

Reject mainstream news and seek out independent journalism.

This is murder of another innocent, of an ICU nurse who stopped to help someone. He did not get out of bed today to become history in the worst way imaginable. It is a moment of choosing - for Europe, Canada and all 340 million of those who live here with me. The Trump administration - along with Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Peter Thiel, and so many others - fear accountability above all else. If you have a voice you can share, now is the time. We will move faster than the courts. Push back any way you can, and do it nonviolently.

I am also a prime target of this regime, but I no longer care. If you get a kick out of anything I've placed on this site, thank you - to everyone around the world who has connected with me in a small way. I am in fact working on project #6, but at this rate I don't know if it will get finished.

To us all.

I am so sorry for Renee's family and children.

Remember last year when I said it can happen to you? Well it has - a tiny eight months later. As the U.S. moves ever closer toward a police state, the only thing (bought) mainstream media can manage is to emulate the current administration: never play defense, always double down, and ALWAYS be first to point the finger.

And they certainly wouldn't want anyone catching wind that their accusations ARE the admission.

The president of the United States has the backing of some of the richest, most powerful and equally insane men on Earth. Let's see if you can name a few without my help; two are spying on the world. One was hired to rig the 2024 U.S. presidential election, then did the Nazi salute for funsies. And another can't bring himself to admit he even wants the human race to endure.

And yet, there are people so allergic to being wrong that they will go to any lengths, excuse any blatant crime, and curb their tone to sound as indifferent as possible - JUST to avoid giving a hint of remorse. To them, looking tough matters more than life itself. And they're everywhere in the West. Of course, they're also the same individuals who bought the fascist idea that some groups are simply "undeserving". After all, why hate a serial child rapist when you can hate a woman?

As someone wise once said, look top to bottom, not left to right; the United States don't even HAVE a left party. Perhaps most importantly, do not let fascist ideals hijack your perception of the "other", or you may find the barrel pressed against your skull next. That's not what I want. Is that what you want?

The only thing her three children will remember 2026 for is that it took away their mother. Their New Years are ruined forever, because the Trump administration sanctioned state murder.

Dictators are REMOVED, not voted out.

Elements of Fascism:

No single state alone
and no others so alluring
A picture has to do